Focus News for, by and aboutON Charleston County CCSD School District, the state of ’s premier school district where Students are the Heart of Our Work.

Volume 1 | Edition 2 | March 2018

Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait: It’s Time to Bring Equity to Charleston County Schools Charleston County for too long has accepted a school system made it illegal to educate black people. That tragic and painful as $51,000. Postlewait wants starting pay for Charleston where half of all students — mostly black and Hispanic legacy was built into the state’s education system and still is County teachers to be bumped up to at least $40,000. Better children and those living in poverty — fail to thrive, and it’s present today. And it manifests in the system in myriad ways. pay is essential to attracting top teachers in today’s teacher time to make the dramatic systemic changes required to turn shortage. But, she said, it will cost the district about $20 that around, Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait told First, there simply are not enough experienced teachers million to increase teacher salaries. – continued on page 4 members of the Historic Rotary Club of Charleston. working in schools with a high percentage of children of color and those from lower-income families. The district’s Postlewait began her Nov. 28 talk with some startling facts greatest challenges are found in those schools, and it needs about the Charleston County public schools. “We have to steer its top talent to them to meet those challenges. “We “We have schools in Charleston schools in Charleston County that rate among the top need to learn to spot teachers who take children who are nationally, and we have schools in Charleston County that below grade-level and move them more than a year in a year,” County that rate among the top are the worst performing schools in the state. That represents Postlewait said. That’s the only way children who have fallen nationally, and we have schools a system failure”, she said. “There is a time for plain behind academically can catch up and then get ahead. And speaking,” she said. And for her, that time is now. the district needs to offer incentives to great teachers who in Charleston County that are There are five CCSD schools where fewer than 8 percent of work in its most challenging schools. the worst performing schools in students read at grade-level, she said. “And in those schools, The district also must find and celebrate excellent principals the state. That represents a system there is a terrible over-representation of children of color and and other leaders. “Teachers will come to work for great poverty.” leaders,” she said. failure. There is a time for plain Everyone employed by the district is working hard, including And finally, the district must develop a pipeline to create a speaking.” teachers, principals and people who work in the district office. continuous flow of talented people into the system. One of “But we’re not getting the job done for half of our children. Gerrita Postlewait That’s a classic definition of a systems failure,” she said. the main drawbacks to this is the rate at which the district pays teachers, she said. Now, a starting CCSD teacher makes Superintendent The roots of the inequity can be traced back at least to the about $36,000. But other school districts that recruit teachers 1800s, when the state of South Carolina passed a law that in the same places as CCSD pay beginning teachers as much

GRADUATES FIGHTING TO PRESERVE School Board THE HISTORY OF THE LAING SCHOOL Approves CCSD’s Strategic Plan Question: What is a strategic plan and why should it matter to me? Answer: The South Carolina Department of Education requires all school districts to submit a strategic plan every five years, and to update that plan every year. The Charleston County School Board in December gave final approval to CCSD’s plan, which included gathering input from teachers and other district staff, parents and community leaders. The plan details the district’s goals for students and the organization, and provides a framework for how it will achieve them. While some elements of the plan are very detailed and might seem like “inside baseball,” others will directly impact what goes on in the district’s classrooms. Essentially, the plan provides the big “If we don’t tell our story, someone will tell his story.” picture for the kind of learning experiences the district Martha Pearl Vanderhorst Ascue, a member of the association and a 1963 graduate of Laing. wants to provide and the steps it will take to ensure it can provide them. Drive down U.S. Highway 17 past the intersection of Six Mile Road and you will see the old Laing School building. It looks Q: According to the plan, what are the district’s goals for like any other old, empty school building, and soon it will be demolished to make way for a new Home Depot in the rapidly the next five years? gentrifying section of Mount Pleasant. A: The district will: But members of the Laing School Association want everybody to know it’s not an ordinary school building. And they want • Maximize academic achievement and ensure every to make sure that the story, memories and significance of the Laing School, which originally opened to serve freed black student is career, college and citizenship ready. students in a charred church in the town’s Old Village just months after the end of the Civil War, doesn’t get swept away with • Provide learning opportunities that allow every student rubble. It’s their story and they want it told in their voices. “If we don’t tell our story, someone will tell his story,” said Martha to develop and demonstrate talents, interests and Pearl Vanderhorst Ascue, a member of the association and a 1963 graduate of Laing. modern workplace skills. The Six-Mile site, which was one of several Laing School sites, opened in 1953 to serve black seventh- through 12th-grade • Ensure a safe, supportive and inclusive environment students, said Dorothy Elizabeth Fludd. Fludd is a 1955 graduate, one of the first black librarians hired at the College of for every student and adult in the system. Charleston and the association’s historian. Seventeen high school classes graduated from Laing. In the early 1970s, the building • Implement a pipeline that recruits, supports, retains briefly served as an eighth-grade campus for the newly opened Wando High School, and then reopened in 1974 as Laing and rewards talented teachers, principals and staff for Middle School. – continued on page 3 every school. • Align resources to address student needs. • Engage in continuous progress processes to create system effectiveness in meeting student needs. Expanded Technical and Career Education • Communicate student progress. Seek feedback and cultivate family and community partnerships to ensure Headed to North Charleston success for every student. information technology, pre-engineering, and arts and audio • Address local priorities to provide systemwide visual technologies. equity. – continued on page 4 THE NEW NORTH The new Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) model CHARLESTON CENTER represents a departure from the traditional technical school model, where students take both their academic and trade FOR ADVANCED STUDIES courses at one school. When the new center opens, all students will have a home high school. But those who are INSIDE THIS OPENS IN 2020. interested will take courses or participate in training programs for part of the day at the CAS. The new model will benefit students ISSUE because the larger training center, which The new model will benefit students because the larger serves more schools, can offer training center, which serves more schools, can offer more more technical programs. technical programs. The model also will benefit existing high A New Diversity Plan for Academic schools by bringing in more students so they also can expand Magnet High School...... 2 offerings for students who attend them. When the new North Charleston Center for Advanced Students get Hooked on Guitars Studies opens in 2020, students from all North Charleston Charleston County voters approved funding for the North from the First Chord...... 2 High Schools will have the opportunity to learn skills that Charleston CAS, and another one in West Ashley, in the will give them an edge when it comes to landing jobs in the 2014 penny sales tax referendum. A center is already open Engaging Parents in Title I Schools ...... 2 Lowcountry’s growing economy. on the Wando High School campus in Mount Pleasant. CCSD Working Toward Accreditation The school board in November voted in favor of building The decision on the North Charleston center site came after through AdvancEd...... 3 the $43.7 million career training facility across East months of discussion on the best location. The board on Nov. Montague Avenue from North Charleston High School, on 2 voted 7-2 in favor of the North Charleston High site. Benedict’s Marching Tigers Band the site of Attaway-Heinsohn Stadium. When it’s done, District officials initially recommended that site because it of Distinction Impresses and students from all North Charleston High Schools — was centrally located and there was space available to build including Stall, North Charleston and Military Magnet — the facility. Board members Rev. Chris Collins and Michael Inspires at West Ashley High...... 4 can take classes in the fields of health science technologies, Miller were opposed. – continued on page 4 Focus ON CCSD p2

New Diversity Plan for Academic Magnet High School Academic Magnet High School every year is 12.99 will be invited to attend a series of spring and summer ranked one of the best public schools in workshops designed to strengthen academic skills and plan for America, but when it comes to the STUDENT ETHNICITY successful enrollment at the school. Students who complete diversity of its student body, the school the workshop series and demonstrate the skills, work ethic and needs improvement. ACADEMIC MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT WIDE motivations that are likely indicators of success at Academic The Charleston County school board in Magnet will be enrolled. October voted in favor of a plan aimed at increasing the The school board approved the new plan with a 4-2 vote. Rev. number of minority students, especially black students, Chris Collins and Chris Staubes were opposed. admitted to the school. This year, about 85 percent of the students enrolled at the school in North Charleston are white, Collins wanted more students — perhaps even the top five 7 percent are Asian, 3.4 percent are Hispanic, 3.3 percent are from each eighth-grade school or program — admitted. black and 1.3 percent are of another race. That’s in stark Staubes said he was concerned because the average score on contrast to the overall racial make-up of students in the school the rubric for students currently enrolled at Academic Magnet district which is: 47.1 percent white, 39.2 percent black, 9.4 n White 85% n White 47.1% percent Hispanic, 1.6 percent Asian and 2.7 percent other. n Asian 7% n Black 39.2% is 14.2. That means that some students who are among the n Hispanic 3.4% n Hispanic 9.4% top two at some schools will be enrolled, even if there are other The school board in January 2017 approved a plan to increase n Black 3.3% n Asian 1.6% students who score higher on the rubric but who are not one n n diversity in the 2017-2018, which included guaranteed Other 1.3% Other 2.7% of the top two students at their schools. acceptance to Academic Magnet for the top two eighth-grade students in all of the district’s schools and programs who met School district attorney Natalie Ham told school board the minimum requirements for acceptance. Those requirements members that the new plan would pass legal muster because include getting a score of 13 or more on a 15-point rubric that all nine of those students are doing well this year. it will be applied equally and consistently among all students based on grades, test scores, a writing sample and teacher at all schools. recommendations. The new plan for the ninth-grade class in the 2018-2019 school year again includes identifying the top two eighth- District officials said they expect this change to result in at least But that plan had less than impressive results. For instance, it graders in all of the district’s schools and programs. Those who two students from each district middle school and brought in only nine more black students. Judith Peterson, score 13 or higher on the rubric will automatically be accepted kindergarten through eighth-grade program to be enrolled as Academic Magnet’s former principal, told the school board at Academic Magnet. And those who score between 12.0 and freshmen at Academic Magnet in the 2018-2019 school year. Students get Hooked on Guitars from the First Chord

What do you get when you mix a group of Seventh-grader Destiny Green said she’s excited about learning to play the guitar, and she hopes someday to be able enthusiastic middle-schoolers, a bunch of new to play This Little Light of Mine, one of her favorite songs. “I love music,” she said. guitars and a nationally known recording artist? Kerry Hayes, another seventh-grader, said he likes the sound a guitar makes. And he hopes he eventually can learn to play You get an afterschool program that rocks. a hip-hop song. Eleven students from St. James-Santee Elementary-Middle School Stefani Timmerman, visual arts teacher at St. James-Santee, in McClellanville had their first guitar lesson in November, and said the students’ first goal is to learn to play R. Kelly’s I they were totally focused on the instruments despite the lesson Believe I Can Fly. She hopes that by the spring, they can play coming at the end of a long school day. Danielle Howle, artist in that song for the school board. residence at Awendaw Green, who recently released a new CD, Timmerman, a song writer who also plays the guitar, is spent the first class teaching the children to connect with their working with Howle in the after-school program. She said instruments, tune them and strum a chord. “Every single being music simply is another good vehicle to help students learn, on the planet is endowed with the ability to create music,” she and many students are receptive to it. They relate well to music told the group. “This is an extension of your heart.” because they hear it a lot in their homes and churches, she said. Students at St. James-Santee weighed in on which musical For instance, her students recently were studying artist instrument they would like to learn to play, and they Romare Bearden, who is widely known for his work in overwhelmingly chose the guitar, said Ashley Peters, a collages. In addition to drawing and painting, the lessons “Every single being on the planet is program officer for the district’s Department of Expanded include writing and recording songs. The music component Learning. helps the students engage in learning, she said. endowed with the ability to create music. She said her department is using a portion of a federal 21st The school now has 22 guitars, which were purchased by the Century Grant to run the program. The four-year, $700,000 grant, Timmerman said. In addition to using them in the grant is meant to bring after-school opportunities to students after-school program, she keeps some in her classroom and This is an extension of your heart.” in rural schools that have a large percentage of lower-income uses them with younger students. students. Grant funds also are covering the cost of transporting Timmerman hopes that someday soon the school will have Danielle Howle students. That’s especially important in rural schools, because many parents must rely on the school bus to bring their enough guitars so students who are learning to play can take artist in residence at Awendaw Green children home at the end of the day. If the grant didn’t provide them home to practice. For now, the instruments have to transportation, many students couldn’t participate in after- remain at the school. She thinks the students would be even school programs. “Kids in rural areas might not have the more excited about music if they could bring the instruments opportunity to do these things,” Peters said. home. “There’s just something about holding a guitar.”

ENGAGING PARENTS IN TITLE I SCHOOLS When Maria Sanchez picked up her children at the end of Sanchez said she learned a lot in the Parenting Partners coming up, so the group is getting out information about the school day last year, her attention usually was focused on workshops last year, and she would recommend them to effective communication. the next thing on her to-do list. other parents. One of the best things she now does as a result Odom, who has been part of the council for about a decade, of attending the workshops, she said, is that she allows her said she continues in her volunteer role because the work is But now, she asks them about what they did in school and children to use the phone only between 6 and 8 p.m. They important. Parents are the best people to get information to what their day was like. “It makes them feel important,” had been glued to their phones, she said. Now, they get done other parents, she said. “Someone reached out to me so I Sanchez said. And it tells them that school is important. what they need to get done. And, the rule has brought her reached out to someone else.” While that may not sound like a big change, the impact of closer to her seven children, especially the older ones, who it, along with other techniques Sanchez learned in Parenting are in middle school. “Now they come into the kitchen and Fulmore said her office also offers regular training to parent Partners workshops sponsored by the Charleston County talk to me,” she said. engagement staffers, who are available to parents in most School District, has been dramatic in her family. schools. And those staff members help parents find what they She also has learned to be a more consistent parent, she said. need to better support their children. “We need that buy-in The Parenting Partners program is one of the ways the In the past, she had taken the phone away from her children, from parents.” district engages parents in their children’s education at its but she often gave in and gave it back to them quickly. Now, Title I schools, which have a high percentage of low-income she sticks to the rule that her children can use the phone only For more information, contact Rosa Fulmore at 843-937-6446. students, said Rosa Fulmore, the district’s Title I Parent and between 6 and 8 p.m., she said. If it’s 5:50 p.m., they Family Engagement Coordinator. The program workshops wouldn’t think of asking to use the phone, she said. cover topics such as: creating confident children, communication that works, creating a structure for Fulmore, who has been with the district for the past 17 years, achievement, and discipline. said the Parent Advisory Council serves an important role “Parents are a child’s first getting out information to parents of children in Title I The district also has a Parent Advisory Council — made up schools. of parents, community members and district staff — and it teacher. The more parents are offers regular training for members of the parenting staff who Kim Odom, the group’s current chairwoman, said work in many of the district’s 49 Title I schools. There is a information parents need always has been out there. But it involved, the better kids do in misconception that district officials recently eliminated might be printed on a brochure parents don’t read or on a website they don’t see. Odom, the parent of two daughters parent engagement positions, Fulmore said, but that’s not school. It’s a direct correlation.” correct. Most schools have a parent engagement staff who previously attended Title I elementary and middle member. But some schools decided to spend their federal schools, said she sees the council as “a clearinghouse for Rosa Fulmore Title I dollars on other priorities, she said. parent feedback.” CCSD Tilte I Parent and Family Getting parents involved is important, Fulmore said. The group is required to provide certain information, she Engagement Coordinator “Parents are a child’s first teacher,” and, she added, “the more said, such as how federal funds for Title I schools are being parents are involved, the better kids do in school. It’s a direct spent. But it also disseminates information on trending correlation.” topics, she said. For instance, parent-teacher conferences are Focus ON CCSD p3

CCSD Working Toward Accreditation through AdvancEd

The best way to start making something better is to get very clear about what it’s like now—warts The report also will include information gathered from classroom observations in the schools. and all. That’s what the Charleston County School District is doing as it prepares for the AdvancEd The observations will be conducted using a specific tool aimed at assessing student engagement. accreditation process. Specifically, the observations will consider whether the learning going on in classrooms is equitable, supportive, active, well-managed and includes a digital component. District schools, and the district as a whole, now are accredited through the South Carolina Department of Education. But the department also allows districts to seek accreditation through The final School Quality Factors Diagnostic report, which will be completed by school principals, AdvancEd, a regional, external agency with a more rigorous evaluation process. District leaders will analyze where the school falls on seven quality factors: say landing accreditation through AdvancEd could improve district schools, boost their reputation • Clear direction: The district or school can clearly communicate its direction, mission and goals. and allow the district to apply for certain grants it couldn’t apply for in the past. Sixty-three of the state’s more than 80 school districts have earned the accreditation, including several Lowcountry • Healthy culture: The school creates opportunities in myriad ways for everyone in its community districts: Beaufort, Colleton, Dorchester 2, Dorchester 4 and Hampton 1. to be successful. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, state and regional accreditors often look at different • High expectations: The school or district is committed to such expectations for everyone in the things. Generally, state accreditation is based on schools meeting targets set by the state in areas school community. such as test performance and class size. Regional accreditation, such as AdvancEd, often takes a more holistic approach. Schools are evaluated on a host of factors including school administration, • Impact of instruction: Teachers create environments where students are successful and prepared curriculum, facilities and board governance, in addition to student performance. for the next level. The district and its schools don’t need to be perfect to land the accreditation from AdvancEd. • Resource management: The institutions demonstrate that they can plan, secure and allocate But they need to demonstrate that they have conducted a detailed analysis of where they are now resources to meet the needs of every learner. and have a clear plan for ongoing improvement. • Efficacy of engagement: District and school staff members demonstrate that they can engage Districts and schools seeking AdvancEd accreditation must produce a self-evaluative report (also students to improve learning. known as a School Quality Factors Diagnostic) before the accrediting team’s first visit. The team • Implementation capacity: The district and its schools can consistently execute plans designed will be in CCSD schools from Sept. 23-26. to improve effectiveness. That report will include information gathered from “culture and climate” surveys and inventories The AdvancEd team won’t visit all schools when it comes to Charleston County in September. completed by students, parents, teachers and other school staff. Information from parents will be And district leaders won’t know which schools will be visited until a few days before the visit, so gathered online, and will take parents only two or three minutes to complete. Schools will work all schools must be prepared. District leaders expect to learn by Sept. 26 whether the district has with parents who don’t have computers at home to help them find ways to complete the surveys. earned the accreditation.

Graduates Fighting to Preserve the History of the Laing School – continued from page 1

SHINING LIKE A BEACON So she came back and opened a catering business with her DNA of Charleston County and the Charleston County husband. Then they opened the popular Gullah Cuisine School District,” Allen said. Ascue in November brought together a group of 20 restaurant, which closed in 2014. She also is co-author of the . association members who either graduated from Laing before cookbook “Gullah Cuisine: By Land and By Sea.” 1970, when the Charleston County schools fully integrated, INTEGRATION or who support the school and its history. Everybody gathered “By the grace of God we were able to make it,” Jenkins said. “If The process of integrating schools in South Carolina, at the Greater Goodwill AME Church that day said the we would have had resources, we would have done even better.” including the Laing School, was a slow one. Starting in school was the center of their community, and they want its All of the students gathered at Greater Goodwill AME had 1965, select Laing students who had their family’s support legacy to be preserved. stories of success. Many excelled in the military, business, began attending the white Moultrie High School. It was a Thomas L. Goodwater, who graduated from Laing in 1970, education and various other fields. lonely, often brutal process, but the students who said he lived only a two-minute ride from the white Moultrie Roberta Huger Pinckney, from the Class of 1964, said her volunteered to go to Moultrie said simply that somebody High School. But he had to take the bus seven miles to Laing. family was very poor. “I had to go through 10th grade had to do it. Somebody had to be first. And he remembers Moultrie students “bombing the bus” without books,” she said. She had to borrow them from her Joanne Wright Howard was an active and involved student with bricks, rocks or whatever they could find along the road. cousins and friends when they weren’t using them. at Laing in 1965, when she agreed to be one of the first black “You never forget that,” Goodwater said. But that’s his students to enroll at Moultrie. She was a majorette, a motivation for getting involved in the association, he said. But Laing gave her the foundation to do well. She was the cheerleader and she played basketball. “Some people were “It’s about making something constructive and positive out only female in her class to pass an exam that would have encouraged to go first,” she said, and she was one of them. “I of all that.” allowed her to join the U.S. Air Force, she said. But she decided to attend college instead. And she retired as the chief sacrificed,” she said. “I went to a place I had never been. Ruth Frederica Richardson Jenkins, a 1959 graduate, said the executive officer of a local community health center. “We all People didn’t want us there. They held their noses.” school and community were intertwined and everybody kept excelled using second-, third- and fourth-hand books,” she She graduated from Moultrie in 1967, but she didn’t feel like an eye on the children and teenagers. “If you got in trouble said, and she attributes her success to Laing and her she was part of either school. It was a lonely, sometimes — and there were no phones back then — somehow, when community. frightening experience. you got home, the message was there.” Pinckney and many of the other Laing graduates said they wished Alifax Wright Edwards left Laing for Moultrie as a freshman All of the graduates said Laing was like a family. They not the school district would have continued using the Six-Mile site in 1965, after spending the previous few years at Laing. At only learned about academic subjects and trades, but about for some kind of school. “Moultrie High School students can go the time, Laing served seventh- through 12th graders. “They morals and values as well. June Gilliard Dupree, who back on the grounds. We have nothing,” she said. didn’t want us (at Moultrie), even the teachers,” she said. They graduated in 1959, said, “Laing was a loving school. We had separated the black students from the rest of class and called a lot of respect. No violence. No hatred.” them names, she said. Willie Thompson Jr., who graduated in 1953, said, “At Laing, ONE HAND TIED Lester W. Capers, who also graduated from Moultrie in 1967, you stood at attention because you were somebody.” He also Michael Allen, a community partnership specialist for the was one of the first young black men to enroll there. He also noted that he had many male teachers, in contrast to today National Park Service, which recently opened a Reconstruction said racist teachers made his years there difficult. And he was where the majority of teachers are female. “We shined like a Era National Monument in Beaufort County, said the students shocked by the new books and other resources he had access beacon,” he said. who attended the segregated Laing School entered the to as a Moultrie student. “I saw how much we were denied at world with “one hand tied” behind their backs. But they Laing.” accomplished a great deal, Allen said. “Imagine what they could FEW RESOURCES, MUCH SUCCESS have done with both hands.” Almost all of the Laing graduates have been volunteer tutors at some time during their adult lives, but they have done little Thompson was in the last class to graduate from the Laing Allen, who grew up in Kingstree, is a supporter of the Laing at the new Laing Middle School of Science and Technology , School building near the intersection of King Street and School even though he never was a student there. He said the Ascue said. The association is trying to form a strong Laing Royall Avenue in Mount Pleasant. He said all of the students school is an important institution because it started during Leaders of Tomorrow group to tutor minority students. But there were poor. And the school’s furnishings and books were Reconstruction and has operated continuously. Reconstruction few black students attend Laing Middle School of Science hand-me-downs from the all-white Moultrie High School. was about the transition from slavery to freedom, he said, and and Technology, a partial magnet school. “The books I read came from Moultrie and the seat I sat in it also was about integrating African Americans into social, came from Moultrie,” he said. But there was a sense of pride political, economic and labor systems. “Education is seen as the The association members also would like to see the history at Laing despite the students having to use second-hand key vehicle for that transition.” And Reconstruction-era sites of Laing taught at the new middle school and for the school’s materials, he said. such as Laing, the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, the Avery history to somehow be featured more prominently, she said. Charlotte Ascue Jenkins, who graduated in 1962, said she was Research Institute at the and Claflin University in Orangeburg must be preserved. And they hope the historical marker that Home Depot agreed inspired by her home economics teacher, but she wasn’t able to put on the Six-Mile site is enough for it to be remembered. to do anything in that field immediately after graduation. In “And now it’s incumbent upon our school system to Ascue said she also expects there to be a photograph of the 1962, the only work available to her in the Charleston area communicate this,” he said. When people drive past Laing’s school inside the store, and the names of the students who was housekeeping jobs that paid about $15 per week. So she Six-Mile site, they should honor and respect it, he said, integrated Moultrie High school to be displayed somewhere went to New York after graduation and stayed there for 15 especially those who were complicit in it being segregated and on the site. “We have to keep the legacy alive.” years working as a doctor’s assistant. But she still carried a not receiving equal and sufficient resources. “This is in the dream inspired by her home economics teacher. LAING SCHOOL TIMELINE The Laing School opened with about 50 students in the remains of the Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church. Cornelia Hancock, a Civil War nurse and Quaker from New Jersey, is credited with founding the school to serve former slaves and was its first principal. The school later was named for Henry M. Laing, treasurer of both the Friends Association for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

1866 1867 1868 1886 1894

The school moved to a brick The Freedman’s Bureau built a new, two- An earthquake destroyed The Pennsylvania Abolition Society became trustee of mansion, provided by the story school at the corner of King Street the school, but it was the school, which it deeded to Charleston County in Freedmen’s Bureau, in Mount and Royall Avenue, on land donated by the rebuilt on the same site. 1940. It became the first accredited public school for Pleasant’s Old Village. town of Mount Pleasant. African Americans in South Carolina.

SIX-MILE SITE TIMELINE The new Laing High School opened near the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and Six Mile Road to serve black students in seventh-12th grades.

1953 1954 1970 1970-1974 1974 2009 2012

The first of 17 classes The last of 17 classes The school building was used some of The building Laing Middle School began its transition to Laing Laing’s new facility opens on of black students of black students that time as the eighth-grade campus reopened as Laing Middle School of Science and Technology, a partial Bulrush Basket Lane two miles graduated. graduated. for the new Wando High School. Middle School. magnet school, and the school moved to a transitional from its former site at Six Mile. facility located at Wando South on Mathis Ferry Road. Focus ON CCSD p4

It’s time to bring equity to Charleston County schools – continued from page 1 In addition to bringing more talent to its most challenging or near grade-level in both reading and math, she said. That from having access and opportunity.” That can happen because schools, the district must explore and implement changes in the model is used at the private Meeting Street Academy and the the curriculum from the school before the choice school didn’t classroom that better facilitate learning among children of color district is piloting it through a public-private partnership at adequately prepare the student for the next, more challenging and poverty. For instance, many of those children come to Meeting Street Elementary @Brentwood. program. Many students from more affluent families receive school not yet ready to learn. But, if they start school at three Meeting Street has given the district one excellent model, private tutoring and lessons that help land coveted spots in years old and have two capable teachers in every classroom they magnet schools. “The inequities in the system are so pervasive attend until they complete third grade, most of them will be at Postlewait said. “But we need to be able to scale it.” That could prove challenging because such programs cost about $3,000 we almost don’t see them,” she said. more per child per year than tradition programs. Postlewait told the Rotarians that they can help by demanding, If the district could find and fund programs that better teach from the outside, that the system change and become more children who are not ready to learn when they come to school, equitable. They also can expect the district to keep its budget it could reduce the number of children in special education balanced, and to create budgets aligned with the district’s goals. programs, she said. Those programs are disproportionately filled The district not only needs to plan the budget, she said. “We with children of color and those who live in poverty, she said. need to budget the plan.” “In special education, we find the fault lies somewhere in the They also can speak out in their roles as business leaders. “We child.” But in many cases, the fault really lies in a system that need you to see our system as a talent supplier,” she said, and to can’t meet children’s learning needs. hold the district accountable for graduating young people She also said the district needs to better gauge whether students prepared to meet their needs. They also can offer apprenticeship are proficient in specific subject matter, instead of just making opportunities so students can get work experience. sure they put in the required amount of seat-time and earn an CCSD is going to fight to bring equity to its schools, Postlewait overall score of 60 percent. “We send them right on down the said. In its most recent strategic plan, equity is one of the core assembly line,” she said. “Meeting Street has given the district one excellent model, values. The plan has “a powerful recruit, retain and reward But we need to be able to scale it.” Postlewait also said the district must be careful about how it element” meant to level the playing field. But everybody has to Gerrita Postlewait, Superintendent implements school-choice programs. “It is a powerful and work together, both inside and outside the district, to turn marvelous tool,” she said. “But it’s not a tool if it’s used to around the inequities. “It’s no one’s fault,” she said, but it’s re-segregate schools or if it’s used in a way that keeps children everyone’s responsibility, especially mine.”

Expanded Technical and Career Education Headed to North Charleston – continued from page 1 Board members and district officials listened to many Garrett supporters wanted the new CAS to be build adjacent voted in favor of recommending the new facility be built on members of the community before making the final site to Garrett. They also wanted Garrett’s facilities to be the Garrett site. But there were others who were opposed to decision. After the district announced in the spring its initial upgraded. And they didn’t want the school to be closed and the Garrett site, including some residents of the surrounding plan to build the CAS near North Charleston High, some replaced by the CAS. community who were concerned about the traffic the facility would bring to the neighborhood. community groups said they were opposed to that site. Some The school board hasn’t decided what will happen to Garrett were concerned about the demolition of the 1940s-era Academy after the CAS opens in 2020. But, the Nov. 2 vote Board member Cindy Bohn Coats from the Park Circle Attaway-Heinsohn stadium, which they said had been an required that it be used for a CCSD school. The board didn’t, neighborhood, said both Garrett and North Charleston important part of the Park Circle community for decades. however, specify which grade levels the school would serve. High currently serve fewer than 500 high school students, The 2014 referendum also included funds to build a new which forces them to have limited offerings. Bigger high regional stadium to be shared by North Charleston high The board was going to make the final decision in September schools have more resources, she said. It’s hard to fund a 500- schools. on a site for the CAS, but it voted instead to form a committee to consider the issue. The committee was student high school. But the most controversial issue was the plight of Garrett comprised of the three school board members from North The group also considered building the CAS at Stall High Academy of Technology, a magnet technical high school in Charleston, city of North Charleston officials, and School. But that proposal didn’t gain much traction among North Charleston’s Dorchester-Waylyn neighborhood. Now, community members who had a stake in the future of group members or other school board members largely about 400 students are enrolled in Garrett’s nine trade Garrett and technical education in North Charleston. because Stall, located on Ashley Phosphate Road, is a programs, which include cosmetology, auto mechanics and considerable distance from the other North Charleston high early childhood education. That’s down from more than 700 That group included several people who supported building schools. students several years ago. the CAS at Garrett, and the majority of members ultimately

Benedict’s Marching Tigers Band of Distinction Impresses and Inspires at West Ashley High

West Ashley High School’s band program needed a spark of energy, so Principal Lee Runyon called in the Benedict College Marching Tigers Band of Distinction. The popular band took to the field at half-time during the Oct. 20 Wildcats football game, putting on a show for the community and inspiring students who are in the band or who are considering joining it in the future. Earlier that day, the band marched in Burke High School’s Homecoming parade. Donnie Newton, public relations coordinator at West Ashley High, said Runyon invited the band from Benedict College in Columbia because he hoped it would bring some life back to West Ashley’s band program. The number of students participating in the band has dropped a bit in recent years, he said. Several factors likely contributed to the decline. Popular band director James Edward “Eddie” Shealy retired in 2014, after leading the Middleton High School and West Ashley High bands for 34 years. Shealy, who passed away Oct. 3, was widely known for having a lively band, Benedict’s Marching Tigers Band of Distinction being a beloved member of the West Ashley community and for bringing special-needs children into the band program. After Shealy left, the band had a couple different leaders, Newton said. It just didn’t have the consistent leadership it did under Shealy. Ashley High and Benedict will benefit both schools. Participating in band also can be expensive. Students must cover the cost of their instruments And both the director and assistant director of the Benedict band are graduates of Charleston as well as fees for uniforms, transportation and other costs. And there are so many other extra- County schools, he said. The Marching Tigers Band of Distinction is directed by curricular activities offered at West Ashley that compete with the band. Many students also McClellanville native H. Wade Johnson, a graduate of Lincoln High School. Ronald T. Green, are taking more Advanced Placement courses and simply have less time for extra-curricular the assistant director of bands at Benedict, is a Burke High School graduate. activities. Newton said the band’s performance at West Ashley High was a treat for the community. School board member Kevin Hollingshead, a Benedict alumnus, suggested to Runyon that The group did a spectacular job and inspired students, he said. And Johnson, who had known he reach out to the Benedict band after Runyon told him about the struggles the West Ashley Eddie Shealy for many years, made the performance a tribute to the long-time West Ashley band program was having. He thought the show the group put on at the Wildcats game was band director. “Everyone was impressed with the caliber of this band on the field and off great, he said. “The audience loved it.” He also thinks a stronger connection between West the field.”

Focus ON CCSD School Board approves CCSD’s Strategic Plan – continued from page 1 Focus on Charleston County School District is published for, by and about CCSD, the state of Q: What are Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait’s priorities? South Carolina's premier school district where Students are the Heart of our Work. A: Dr. Postlewait has three main priorities for the next several years. Her first priority is to ensure that all students Gerrita Postlewait, Superintendent of Schools read at a third-grade level by the time they are in third grade. That’s an important indicator of academic success in Erica Taylor, Chief Officer, Strategy & Communications future years. She also is committed to developing the most talented team of employees possible, to get and keep “the Andy Pruitt, Director of Communications and Technology best and brightest” working for CCSD. And finally, she prioritizes equity, which simply means the district will be Diane Knich, Writer fair in the way it uses its resources by getting them to where they are most needed. Roc Jackson, Designer Toshiba Champaigne, Project Specialist Maggie Dangerfield, Project Manager Tyesha Drayton, Project Manager Q: Why does the plan so often emphasize “every” child, “all” students and “every” school? Lauren Gandy, Project Specialist A: The district is committed to the academic success of all of its students, and to eliminating achievement gaps Beth Havens, Strategy Clara Heinsohn, Public Affairs Officer between groups of students. It also is committed to fairly and equitably allocating resources to every one of its schools, Alicia Kokkinis, Grants Officer so all children have opportunities to succeed. Virginia McCummings, Receptionist Christopher Metivier, Multimedia Officer Todd Shaffer, Multimedia Manager Q: How can I learn more about the plan? Claire Wilson, Project Manager Stephen Wyatt, Interim Webmaster A: See CCSD’s website at: www.ccsdschools.com/divisions/strat